MTP V2: New and Improved
by DarkMaster98
Summary: The story you have been patiently waiting for the last month and a half, the MTP reboot, new and improved! Can you handle the awesomeness! Find out today! Both new and old readers are welcome!
1. Prologue

**Greetings to both new and old viewers! Minecraft: The Prophecy had some bugs in it, as some of you may know. This is the revamp, and I believe that it is at least 150% better! This part you are about to read is the prologue. While it is not technically necessary to read, a lot more will make sense if you do read it. So, yeah. Without further ado, enjoy!**

* * *

><p>"Jeb, isn't this empty void kind of lonely?"<p>

"Yes Notch, this infinite expanse could use a touch of life."

"I absolutely agree, but you know the consequences of the action you plan on implementing into action."

"I am fully aware. We will not be allowed to actually come into contact with the denizens of the new land. However, I am content with simply watching, unless you want something other than a blanket of eternal darkness to gaze upon."

"You know we need all three of us to consent. Herobrine should be here."

"I've been here for a while, you know. You just haven't been paying much attention. I will agree to this on one condition, Notch."

"Name it."

"There needs to be several creations. Two will serve as polar opposites, and a third one to hold the two together."

"Fair enough. Each of us will govern one. Jeb, will you be fine with the third dimension, the balance?"

"Sounds interesting. I am willing to take the task."

"Great. Herobrine, you know the rules, right? No matter what happens, no interfering, or else you will no longer be considered a God and banished to your dimension, your powers revoked."

"Yeah, yeah. Watch, no touchie, blah, blah, blah."

"Feel free to start as soon as you want, but as soon as life appears, you stop."

So Notch, Jeb, and Herobrine started creating their worlds, parting ways temporarily.

* * *

><p>*Jeb POV<p>

"Let's see. Knowing Notch, he'll probably just go for a flat expanse of land. I'm guessing Herobrine will make a cavern instead, so I'll make an asteroid, to change things up a little."

A small stark island, seemingly supported by nothing, came into being on the palm of my hands. I gently stroked it, admiring how chilly it felt.

"This could use some extra asteroids."

One by one, miniscule versions of the asteroid flickered into existence. With a small push, I let them hover on their own.

"This is good. What can I do to make the main island stand out, though?"

I eventually decided to place obsidian pillars on the flattest surface.

"That will be the top. I think I'll just keep this as is now, simplicity is sometimes what is best. Now, a name."

I gazed upon the small collection of floating islands, instantly coming up with the perfect name.

"From now on, this will be known as the End."

* * *

><p>*Herobrine POV<p>

"I haven't had the chance to do something like this in a long time, so I should do my best. A fiery cavern seems appropriate."

Nodding at this, I first envisioned a gargantuan blood-red rock. Upon completion, I chiseled out the interior, being extra careful to make sure that it could be naturally supported.

"Support structures are looking alright, now it's time to fill the bottom with magma."

A small stream of the molten rock poured in through the ceilings, filling the bottom until it eventually distributed evenly along the entire cavern, at which point I stopped the flow.

"Looks good, but I think it is missing something. Maybe ores?"

I pondered my options for a brief moment, switching between a blood ruby and nether quartz, finally settling with only the nether quartz.

"One ore is good enough. Other than that, I think just the name is needed, and it will be good."

As I peered into my delicate creation, a certain name came to mind.

"A fiery name for a fiery cavern. The Nether."

* * *

><p>*Notch POV<p>

"Well, this world should be a middle ground. Herobrine obviously went for a fiery, almost inhospitable rock. I know Jeb means well, but he usually forgets to include heat into his creations. An expansive land with a perfect blend of blazing heat and subzero chill just feels like the best way to go about it, which is best achieved by simply leaving a wide open rocky surface."

Considering the possibilities of what life could achieve on this new world, I settled with a solid layer of bedrock on the very bottom. Next, I layered a coating of smooth stone to counter the rough surface of the bedrock. Finally, I scattered throughout the smooth stone a variety of ores, including sparkling sky-blue diamonds, dusty pitch-black coal, and the alluring emeralds.

"This is interesting, but it needs liquids. The lava will naturally form, but I need to add the water on my own."

Steadily, I envisioned streams of clear azure blue water, cutting through the bleak surface of smooth stone, forming natural caverns, twisting in random directions.

"Perfect. Now, it just needs a touch of dirt."

With precision, the water layer on top blended perfectly with the stone, creating a coarse form of dirt. The remaining water distributed evenly along the surface, establishing a vast ocean.

"I'm just going to withdraw myself from any further edits. Life essence will take care of the rest."

* * *

><p>When all three of the gods were finished their magnificent creations, the reconvened to show each other.<p>

"Alright, who wants to start? Herobrine or Jeb?" Notch inquired to the two.

"Meh, Herobrine can go first." Jeb stated indifferently.

The eyeless god dramatically revealed his creation.

"Behold, the Nether! Note the craftsmanship in the walls, and the elegantly flowing lava lake."

"Interesting."

"Interesting? Really? That's the best you could come up with?" Herobrine fumed.

"I guess I'm up next."

Jeb carefully showed his asteroid.

"Well, this is mine. Not exactly the most original, but it works. The obsidian serves as a nice balance to the beige rocks. I'm calling it simply The End."

"Where is the heat?" Herobrine was skeptical.

"Not everything needs to be over 9000 degrees Celcius, you know. An icy chill can be good, too."

"Surely it couldn't handle life at such a low temperature."

"Oh, and extremely hot is better?"

Notch rolled his eyes at the bickering.

"If you two are done, I still have my own world to reveal."

Notch unveiled his design. The other two looked at it critically.

"A plain of dirt, covering a massive stone plateau?"

"Trust me, it will look better once the life essence is installed."

Shaking his head, Herobrine still seemed critical about the design.

"What are you calling yours?"

"I am thinking something along the lines of Minceraft."

"How about Minecraft?" Jeb suggested.

"Minecraft. That has a nice ring to it."

"Let's just add the life essence and get it over with." Herobrine stated impatiently.

The three gods linked their hands together. In unison, they fused their minds together, and an emerald-shade orb of pure energy synthesized in the center. The single orb diverged into three, and each orb took to a planet. Thus, the planet was no longer under the control of the gods, though every life form would know the name of their creator. For the Nether, Herobrine would be the savior. All End denizens would know the name Jeb. All of Minecraft would worship Notch.

Life on each of the dimensions took a different form. In the End, all life started with the Endermite, a small, termite-like creature. Slowly, some of these Endermites would evolve into Enderman, very tall humanoids. An extremely rare genetical mutation of an Endermite would grow up to be an Ender Dragon, usually only one born for every ten thousand years. The Endermen feared this mighty beast, so they made attempts to kill their predecessors in the hopes that an Ender Dragon would not be born, usually without success. Eventually, the Enderman gained a higher level of understanding, and developed the ability to teleport, even between dimensions.

The Nether turned down a different path. The first life-form, the blaze, a simple floating magma-colored head with rotating, detached blazing rods for limbs, able to levitate. For the surroundings, it was a perfect survival mechanism. With the intense heat, it mastered the ability to propel fireballs with deadly accuracy. However, these Blazes were not the only creatures around at the time. They shared surroundings with the Ghast, a massive flying white critter, able to shoot from a much farther distance, with the trade-off of less accuracy and power. For a few eons, the Blazes and Ghasts were the only inhabitants of this massive inferno of a dimension.

* * *

><p>Let's go back to Minecraft, back when life first developed. The dirt layer was slowly coated by a fresh layer of grass, lava formed from the underground pressure, and the vast ocean became inhabited by salmon, pufferfish, clownfish, and just regular, generic grey fish. Over time, these fish evolved into the squid. Meanwhile on the land, the grass mutated into various flower species, and oak saplings slowly became more common. Squids evolved, tree types grew more diverse, most mobs moved to land, you get the drill. Let's skip forward a few eons. Primitive villages had been formed by early villagers, spiders crawled around, pigs, cows, sheep, rabbits, horses, and chickens wandered without a care. At this time, the Endermen stumbled upon the Minecraft dimension, and decided to have a little fun with it.<p>

At the time, the endermen race at a whole was rather uncaring about the consequences of their actions. They unearthed graves of villagers, accidentally disturbing their souls, re-incarnating them as zombies; and in some cases, skeletons. The zombies and skeletons populated the landscape, often displacing villagers from their homes. The ender race didn't stop there, however. Some individuals thought it funny to screw with the scientific experiments of some of the more developed settlements, resulting in a sabotaged experiment involving pigs, gunpowder, and oak leaves, blowing up the lab in the process. Green bipedal suicide bomber pig mutations, dubbed creepers, emerged from the rubble and spread throughout the world. Other lab accidents included a cow-mushroom hybridization (Mooshroom) and a slime block (Slime) coming to life.

The villagers were extremely unhappy with this terrestrial invasion, and decided to fight back, arming themselves with swords. In the middle of a battle, a random lightning strike perfectly hit an obsidian structure set up by the enders. As a result, the hole in the center of the structure began to emit a strange energy, and a purple portal formed and linked with the nearby Nether, thus forevermore connecting the Nether and Minecraft. I could go on, but you're probably getting bored of this by now, so I'm going to skip ahead. Besides, this is more prequel material.

The following event occurred approximately ten years before the actual story. A famous explorer, who went by the name of Bob, discovered an ancient jungle temple while venturing through an overgrown jungle completely surrounded by a mountain range, with the help of his assistant/translator, LolloBlue96.

*Bob's POV, upon discovering the temple.

"We've finally done it! The lost temple of En Dorado!"

I sheathed my razor-sharp machete, instead using my hands to part the rough vines surrounding the worn-down structure. Lollo scouted the dense rain forest, shrouded in shadows from the behemoth jungle trees.

"After ten long years of research, countless critics, and setbacks, the two of us have finally discovered it! Do you believe that the rumors of valuable treasure deep within are true?"

"Only one way to find out, isn't there?"

We stepped forward, into the long-forgotten ruins, hearing our echoing footsteps in the emptiness. Lollo pulled out a torch and placed it into an empty notch in the wall, the empty room filling up with a warm glow. Half of the opposing wall was covered in moss. I brushed it away, revealing an intricate design with mysterious runes lining the edges.

"Hm, what is this?"

"Three worlds unite. Beware the Entity, who desires reversion and destruction. The 303 will lie within Void. Key destruction imminent, one enago. Light will rise to bring down." Lollo translated.

"What is that supposed to mean? Void? 303? Key destruction?"

"From the looks of the writings, this temple is about 10,000 years old, and was built by the enders, most likely shortly after the Great War. Most likely, this is a prophecy. One enago from that time, in their time measurements back then, translates to about 10,010 years in our time. So, the enders are basically predicting something cataclysmic will happen ten years from now?"

"I guess we'll find out in ten years. Wait, did you hear that?"

We fell silent. A low-pitched grunting could be heard outside.

"Zombie. We should go, the mobs are getting restless in our presence."

Just then, a spider hopped down from the roof. Quickly, I pulled out my machete, only to have it knocked out of my hand by an arrow from a skeleton.

"They really don't want us to leave alive with this secret, do they? Lollo?"

"Yes, Bob?"

"I need you to do something for me."

"Anything." he stated resolutely as the mobs drew closer.

"I need you to run out of here, and to never look back."

"What?! But-"

"Listen to me. I'll hold them at bay as long as possible. One of us needs to get out alive, and I would prefer it to be you. I've already got my glory days behind me, you still have a long life to live. Make something with your life, wizard, librarian, whatever. I chose this path, and I will die on this path."

He hesitated, unwilling to leave me.

"Go!"

Taking the opportunity, he bolted. The mobs briefly turned their attention to him, then focused on me. I was surrounded by a ring of zombies, skeletons, and spiders. As they closed in, I prayed that Lollo would get out alive.

...

Lollo did make it out alive, but Bob was bitten by a zombie and perished. The story spread about how Bob had discovered a lost temple, and was twisted by media to the point where Lollo was entirely left out of the story, and it turned into nothing but folklore, many believing that Bob was still alive, or that he had died of a stroke. However, the prophecy's legend still lived on.

**What do you think? #BewareTheEntity. Lol, jk. If that trends, I'm not watching any YouTube for a month. Okay, that is enough. For those of you older viewers, the polls are open until this is done, which will be a while. For those of you curious, I will post a new chapter every Thursday. Well then, I'll see you next chap-**

**WB: Not so fast. Forgetting someone?**

**Oh great, you made it. Welcome to the party, Writer's Block.**

**WB: I sense a sarcastic tone.**

**No, really? How did you guess?**

**WB: Now you're just making fun of me. Two can play at that game. Dark is afraid of roller coasters.**

**So? It's a perfectly logical fear to have. You'll have to do better than that. We don't have time for this, see you all in the next chapter!**

**WB: Dark is bis-**


	2. The Story Begins

**Hello everyone, Dark here! 6 reviews already? That is just breathtaking. I could go on forever praising you viewers, but you probably want to read the first chapter! In this chapter, the OC introduced will be Xena! Without further ado, enjoy the official first chapter!**

...

...

...

A brilliant flash of radiant scarlet light filled my vision, and the next thing I next, I was laid on the grass, facing an open blue sky, a cool breeze wafting through the air. Tentatively, I sat up to take in my surroundings, noticing a huge mountain range off in the distance, no matter which way I turned, a forest of oak trees off to the north, a crystal clear lake to the west, and mostly flat plains elsewhere within viewing range.

"Hello there. Welcome to Staurpoint Pass!"

I turned, startled, to see a pasty individual wearing a shadow-black vest with lavender intones, lavender jeans with coal-black undertones, a silk white fedora, and silvery sneakers. His hair was black, with ebony hightlights, and something that struck me as odd was his eyes, being mostly a normal blue, but flecked with purple. He looked somewhat amused at my bewildered expression.

"I see you've just newly spawned. Folks around here call me Dark_Master_98. What is yours?"

A name implanted itself into my mind, one that seemed perfectly suited to me.

"I think my name is Light."

"Light? Hm, how interesting."

He looked like he knew something more, but decided not to elaborate.

"Is it alright for me to assume that you don't know what you're doing?"

"Yeah, considering it's true."

"Alright, since you're new, I'll help you out with the basics, then direct you to the nearest village. I can't stay long, but I'll do what I can."

He took a few steps away, then beckoned for me to follow him. Somewhat shakily, I got up and advanced with him to the edge of the forest, indicating to a tree.

"You see this tree? Trees will be essential to your survival. With them, you can make wood, sticks, and once you make a crafting table, can forge weapons and tools with it using only wood. Of course, you'll eventually want to upgrade to stone, then iron and finally diamond, but wood will serve you for now. You get the wood by punching the trees until a log pops out. Try it!"

I looked at my fists skeptically, then shrugged and started to punch it. A crack formed in the wood. Startled, I stopped, and the crack disappeared. I ventured a look at Dark_Master_98, who nodded encouragingly. I kept punching it until the log broke off the tree, the tree remaining floating in mid-air.

"Is the tree supposed to be floating?"

"Yes, it takes a while to get used to it. Now, split the log into four planks, and reassemble them into the shape of a table."

Looking at the log, I split it into planks as he instructed and reconstructed it. As I put the last plank into position, it was enveloped in a light, and as the light faded, the planks had shaped into a workbench. I fell back in surprise.

"I love it when they give that response. I think you've got the idea by know. Use that to your advantage. Here's a hint: make the shape of the object if you don't know how to make it, it works most of the time."

He gazed into the woods.

"I should get going now. Remember what I told you. The nearest village is just on the other side of this forest. You can learn more from there."

Dark_Master_98 took one step towards the southern mountains, then stopped.

"Light?"

"Yes?"

"Don't do anything stupid. Be careful, and stay away from danger if you can."

He turned back towards the mountains, then hiked off. I turned towards the woods, taking one last look at the lake.

...

*Dark_Master_98 POV

On the summit of the first mountain, I stopped, turning back to admire the scenery.

"Oh Minecraft, your world is so glorious in your diversity. The sun-filled days and star-filled nights, the plant and animal life, even the air."

I breathed in the clean, fresh air.

"I get the feeling that Light has an fundamental role to play in the prophecy, judging by the last line. He needs to be kept safe at all costs, which is why I'm going to keep an eye on him, from a distance."

...

*Light POV, at the edge of the forest.

In the distance, I could just make out a cluster of buildings. As I stepped forward, the cracking of a tree branch could be heard behind me, and I whirled around in time to see a female figure falling out of a tree, and I backed up to help. As I helped her up, I noticed she was wearing a black cloak with sea-blue jeans and shirt.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks."

She looked into my eyes, then quickly looked away.

"Why were you up there?"

"I was trying to pick some apple from the trees. When you came along, I got distracted, and the branch I was on broke."

"Ouch. Oh, wait, have I introduced myself? My name is Light."

"xEnderAwesomex, but you can call me Xena. I take it you were headed to our village?"

"That village right there? Yes, that's the one. I want to learn more about how to survive."

"That means you're new, then? My father can tell you what you need to know, he's the chieftain! I'll take you!"

She signaled for me to follow her. I followed her into the village, where we were met by curious glances from the villagers, all donned in plain brown robes.

_"A newcomer? Do you think he has emeralds?"_

_"Doubt it, nobody who passes through ever does."_

_"Aw, nuts."_

_"No, those are apples."_

Xena approached one of the villagers.

"Do you know where my father is?"

_"Yes, Villager #1 is in the church."_

"Alright, thank you, Villager #16."

She caught me with a confused look in my eye.

"They're unoriginal with names."

I shrugged. We continued through the streets until we located the church, with a villager newscrew on the lawn. A villager came out of the building, looking annoyed.

"Hey, I already told you to leave! Go away!"

_"Please sir, can you provide any explanation for the illness of Villager #4?"_

"Go back to Villager News and tell them that no further updates will be given until we can cure him."

The reporters retreated. Villager #1, still annoyed, fixed the flowers displaced by them. Xena cleared her throat.

"Dad, are you alright?"

"Oh, yes, I'm fine. I'm afraid Villager #4 is still unwell, however. Who is your friend?"

"This is Light, he wants to know how to better survive and has come to you for advice."

He came up to me and examined me. I noticed that his attire was different from the others, instead of just a coffee-colored robe, he had an emerald-green robe instead.

"I see. So, you want to learn how to survive in the big bad world? Ordinarily, I would be happy to. From what you have heard already, there is a situation in the village. Villager #4 is sick. However, I wasn't completely honest when I said it was a mere illness."

Xena looked confused by this.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, about five days ago, he was bitten by a zombie. He managed to escape, but the bite has been infected, and he is slowly transforming into a zombie. We wouldn't be concerned if it weren't for the fact that Villager #4 holds the only key to our bank vault. We can kill him for it, but there is still a chance that we can bring him back."

"There is?"

"You see, if someone is bitten by a zombie, they have seven days before the zombification is irreversible. The only cure is to find a Golden Apple and to feed it to him, with the assistance of a weakness potion. We have a weakness potion, but no Golden Apple. However, there is a zombie dungeon about a 5 hours east walk from here, with rumors that a Golden Apple can be found inside. Of course, nobody has dared to go in, for fear of being bitten. However..."

"Dad, are you saying that Light has to get the Golden Apple, or else you won't help him?"

"That's a bit harsh, but yes."

Xena stepped beside me.

"Then I'm going too."

"Absolutely not! I will not let you risk your life for this cause."

"But-"

"No buts. What I say is final, you cannot go."

"Light, you don't have to do it."

I shook her off.

"I'm not going to let anyone die. I'll do it."

Villager #1 looked pleased by this.

"Thank you for your help. Should you make it back alive, our village will forever be grateful to you."

"If you have to do it, be careful Light." Xena warned.

I nodded. Waving to them, I headed off into the eastern mountain range as the sun slowly started to descend from the sky.

**What did you think? Did you enjoy? Rate out of 10! Don't do that unless you want to. A bit of trivia for you, I based my new character design loosely on Michael Jackson, specifically the Smooth Criminal look. Now onto the reviews! Artoftheinstakil, last reviewer of the old copy, may I say something? I never explicitly stated that Herobrine would be the last guardian. Don't count the chickens before the eggs hatch. Also, remember that sometimes the most obvious answer is not always the right one. Sorry, needed to get that off my chest. xEnderAwesomex, Angerunleashed4doomsday, TheMelonTroll, CaramelApplezKat, LolloBlue96, General Pyrus, thank you for the support!**

**WB: No, you all suck. **

**Screw you, WB.**

**WB: Want some fries with that?**

**That doesn't even makes sense...**

**WB: Why do people like Michael Jackson? He sucks!**

**Tell that to the millions of fans he has, even today, good luck escaping the crowd of angry protesters. I'm sure the experience will be a Thriller for you.**

**WB: Haha, very hilarious. Why don't you just Beat It, your puns are so Bad, even Billie Jean hates them.**

**Sounds like you're going Off The Wall, so much that you want to Scream. I guess it is just your Human Nature.**

**WB: We should stop before this gets out of hand.**

**Agreed. Thank you for your support, see you next Thursday!**


	3. Quest For The Golden Apple

**Hello everyone, Dark here with a new chapter! Yeah, I know it's Wednesday, but this is a one-time thing. I won't be available to post tomorrow, so I'm posting it today. I know the wait between chapters is long, but just bear with me. I want to make sure the content that I produce is of the best possible quality before I release it. Regarding SD01, I cannot say enough how happy your comments made me feel. I know that not all of you got to actually read SD01 before it self-destructed, but to those who did and left a comment, I cannot thank you enough. For those of you who don't know, SD01 is going to be my way of communicating with you, in the form of notes that are deleted 48 hours after I post them, the next one being SD02, and so on. Enough about SD01. The OC introduced this chapter is Redrobin1322, without further ado, enjoy!**

*Dark POV

The sun was beginning to set down the horizon. Feeling utterly exhausted, I stopped to take a drink from a small stream of water. I felt a rumbling in my stomach, realizing I hadn't eaten anything the whole day. Just then, I heard a rustling in the bushes, and a stray chicken wandered out. It looked at me for a moment, decided I was not a threat, and started pecking the ground. Seeing my chance, I crept up behind and jumped on it. It dodged my attack and started running around, startled. Annoyed at the chicken, I started to chase it around.

"What are you trying to do, play tag with it?"

I froze in place as someone wearing military-style black pants, a licorice-black leather jacket overcovering a rust-colored shirt, and cocoa boots emerged from behind a rock.

"You need to be fast when trying to kill something, or else you'll never manage to catch it. Watch and learn."

The chicken had calmed down and stopped running. The man brandished a stone sword and approached the chicken, dispatching it with a fatal blow.

"It's getting dark, you should come with me if you don't want to be stuck out here with the creatures of the night."

Looking up at the twilight sky, I nodded. He headed into the forest. I followed from a comfortable distance.

"Say, I didn't catch your name. What is it?" I asked him.

"I'm known as Redrobin1322, but you can call me Robin. I'm going to direct that question back to you now."

"Light."

"No, it's dark out."

"That's my name."

"Oh, my bad. Sorry, Light."

...

A few minutes later, we arrived at a small wooden shack.

"Well, here we are. I don't actually live here, by the way, but I built it as a hunting outpost."

Robin opened the door for me, and I stepped in to a warm, inviting house, filled with the smell of cooked chicken. It was not very sizable, but it was enough to fit about two people comfortably. A slightly battered oak wood couch with white-fur pillows laid on on side, and a single-person bed covered with a scarlet blanket on the other side. In the middle was a stone furnace. A lone storage chest was positioned near the back of the shack, hinges slightly worn.

"It's not much, but it's better than nothing. Stay the night, you can take the bed."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Of course, I'm more than willing to sleep on the couch. I don't want you to die out there. You must be hungry. I had previously cooked up some chicken, are you fine with that?"

I nodded. Robin looked inside the chest, intently looking for the chicken. After a few seconds, he found two and handed one to me, which I gratefully accepted. We sat and ate for a few minutes in silence. Finally, Robin broke the silence.

"So, what brings you out here?"

"Have you heard of the Golden Apple?"

"Yeah, that rumor has been around for a while. Why?"

"I'm looking to get it to a nearby village to cure a zombifying villager."

"You're crazy, you know that? Nobody has made it out of there alive. I guess that I can't stop you, but it is dangerous to go alone. Take this weapon."

He dug into the chest and retrieved a stone sword. I gratefully accepted the gift.

"Well, you should get some sleep if you're really going to do this."

I nodded, falling onto the bed, exhausted. As I turned to him with my eyes closing, I noticed him pulling out a Batman comic. I was going to ask him about it, but lost consciousness before I had the chance.

...

"Hey, time to wake up."

My eyes fluttered open, and Robin was sitting on the bed.

"What time is it?"

"The sun is just rising. If you want to reach the dungeon, get the Golden Apple, and return to the village before nightfall, now would be a good time to leave."

I rubbed my eyes, yawned, then pulled myself off of the bed. Robin offered me an apple for the road, so I accepted.

"Thank you for all your help, Robin!"

"It was the least I could do. Take care, Light!"

I felt a new spring in my step, with the dawn light and soft dewy grass under my feet. Pulling out the weapon Robin had gifted to me, I gave it a few practice swings, uppercut, down cut, slash, and a parry for good measure. Just as I was about to sheathe the sword, an arrow whistled right past my head and lodged itself into a nearby tree. I quickly redrew my sword, then turned to my attacker, a bow-wielding skeleton under the shade of a tree.

"Nuts, so close. Guess I miscalculated the wind velocity."

It redrew, and I was forced to hide behind a tree.

"What's wrong, chicken? Too scared to play?"

Just then, the sounds of barking drew close.

"Oh great, not those pesky wolves again! I'll be back to finish the job later, just you see!"

I peeked out cautiously to see the skeleton being pursued by wolves. One of the wolves, a male with a solitary brown paw, stopped to look at me for a moment, then resumed the chase. I sighed in relief.

...

*POV of a zombie named Eruhnin, lurking in the dungeon

"Your move."

I looked at the chessboard, unsure of what to do.

"Do I really need to explain the rules again?"

"Give me a moment, I'm thinking." I tried to buy myself more time.

"More like not thinking." A spectating zombie snickered.

"Unouwa, don't make fun of Eruhnin."

"Sorry, Bob."

Hopelessly staring at the board, I slammed my head against the wall.

"Okay, fine. I forgot how to play."

"Here we go again. Please, try to remember with what little brain you have left. The pawn-"

Just as Bob was about to restart, an incessant knocking could be heard from the door. Unouwa went to answer it, and a skeleton burst in and slammed the door behind it, followed by scratching on the door and a rather upset whining.

"Notch, I hate those wolves."

"Ah, Adnesnev. Welcome back to our fair home. Any news to report?"

Adnesnev shook out some sand from his head, sat down, then looked back to Bob.

"Mostly just the usual. The wolves have been terrorizing me, relaxing under trees, same old. One difference, though. A human seems to be heading to this dungeon, with the intent of taking your Golden Apple."

"Oh, really? We'll see about that. By any chance, did you catch the name of the player?"

"I think it was something like Light."

A deep and thoughtful -at least, as thoughtful as a zombie could be- look entered Bob's eyes.

"Well then, this is useful information. Adnesnev, I want you to do something for me."

"Of course."

"Should this dungeon fall to Light, notify all the other dungeon leaders, and keep a close watch on this player. I doubt this puny human will be able to stand up to us though, with us zombies outnumbering him three to one."

"Will do. If there is nothing else you want from me, I'm going back out. The wolves should be gone by now."

Adnesnev reattached his bones, retrieved his bow, and exited the premises.

...

*Light POV, about ten blocks away from the dungeon

In the trees, I could just make out a foreboding, single-floor cobblestone house, with an even layer of fern green moss, concealed within the trees. Cautiously, I scanned my surroundings, on the lookout for any threats.

"This must be it. I have to be careful about this, or I'm a goner. They'll probably be expecting me to come in through the door, so I'll avoid using that if possible."

After inspecting the building, my eyes were drawn up to the roof.

"Yes, that will do."

I sidled up against the wall, careful not to make any noise, then grabbed hold of stones that protruded slightly from the uneven wall, using them to pull myself up to the roof of the forsaken building. After checking to make sure that I had still gone unnoticed, I peered into a tiny hole to try and get a glimpse of what was happening inside.

"Hello, handsome. looking for something?"

Frantically, I turned to find three zombies surrounding me, each wearing a leather helmet. The apparent leader, who wore a leather chestplate, held out the Golden Apple.

"A little birdie told me that you wanted something. Is this what you came for?"

He held it out tauntingly, just out of my reach.

"I can't let you do that. This Golden Apple has been with us for generations, we don't want to let go of it that easily. If you want it, you'll have to kill us for it. Unouwa, Eruhnin, you know what to do."

His companions snickered with delight, and drew closer to me. I frantically grasped for the sword Robin had gifted to me, and reached it just as one of them was about to bite me. Just in time, I landed a blow against its chest, and it fell back.

"You're resisting, eh? Well then, this makes it more interesting. You two, use your weapons now, and don't hold back!"

Eruhnin and Unouwa equipped themselves with an iron shovel and a golden axe, respectively.

"No, you idiots, I said to bring stone swords!"

"Oops."

"Doesn't matter now, just fight with what you have," the leader sighed.

The one with the golden axe stepped forward first. We dueled, but he lost the fight miserably, not even managing to land a single hit on me. I killed him with a swift stab to the heart, and he slumped over. I kicked him aside, then turned my attention back to the remaining zombies.

"Well, I didn't expect him to win anyways, Unouwa was never a good fighter anyways. Eruhnin, I expect you to do better."

The remaining zombie nodded, then charged towards me. Unprepared for the speed of his attack, I took a few hits, but managed to block Eruhnin before any serious damage was done. After about thirty seconds of parrying back and forth, i managed to decapitate him, and his lifeless body slumped to the ground, his head rolling off of the roof.

"Ugh, I guess you can't trust a grunt to do a boss's job. You're skillful, I'll give you that, Light. But can you stand up against the wrath of Bob?"

Bob reached towards his back and revealed an old, rusty iron sword. Bob stomped on the roof and let out a bone-chilling groan. The roof of the structure began to give way from the weight of a human and three zombies on top of it for an extended period of time, and Bob stomping was certainly not helping. Bob didn't seem to notice the condition of the roof, nor did he seem to care. Lifting his sword into the air, he charged at me. I barely managed to dodge the blow, but Bob was relentless in his targeting. I knew then that Bob was more powerful than me, so i had to employ a different strategy if I was to have a chance.

"Hey Bob, you fight like a chicken!"

This angered him, and he started to swing more furiously, but with less accuracy. Encouraged, I continued.

"Are you fighting, or dancing?"

"Stop mocking me!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I being too mean, or are you too sensitive?"

"That does it!"

Enraged, he landed a perfect blow to my leg, and an intense feeling of agony consumed my thoughts. Satisfied, Bob calmed down.

"Nobody mocks me and gets away with it. Do I make myself clear?"

I could do nothing but nod.

"Perfect. I could kill you right now, but I want to have you as an ally, which means I'm going to bite you now."

Bob leaned in, but just as he was about to land the finishing bite, the roof chose that moment to finally collapse on itself. Bob lost his balance and fell, dragging me down along with him. I was lucky and managed to survive the fall, but Bob got trapped underneath a large chunk of cobblestone, which also conveniently knocked him unconscious. Gasping in pain, I managed to grab the Golden Apple from him, and stumbled outside, where I too fell unconscious from the intense pain. The last thing I remembered was me being gently picked up by someone, but I couldn't make out any actual details apart from the individual being extremely tall and dark-skinned, with glowing purple eyes.

...

"Is he going to be alright?"

My eyes began to flutter open.

"Yes, he'll be fine. He'll be in pain for a while, though."

As if on cue, a sharp pain ran through my injured leg. I shot up, then quickly went back down.

"Oh, he's awake. How are you feeling, Light? Well, besides your leg."

I looked around, finding myself in a white room, attended to by Villager #1 and a random villager.

"Where am I?"

"Well, you see, you've been in Staurpoint hospital for about a week. That leg injury was extreme, but luckily you weren't infected. We found you laid out at the edge of the village."

"What? But I-"

"Don't stress out about it, just be glad you were found. In case you are wondering, Villager #4 is now cured, thanks to you. What you choose to do now is up to you. For your information, if you head back through the forest and into Airie ravine, located on the other side of the lake, you will come across a large city, going by the name of Misirius."

"Can you teach me now about how to survive in the wild?"

"Actually, I already have. You survived, didn't you? You already know how, just trust your natural instinct."

I was a bit miffed at this, but I shook it off. I tried to get up, but a stab of pain forced me back into bed.

"You should get some more rest, you're not fit to go out in that condition."

I tried to argue, but the doctor stabbed me with a needle, and I drifted off.

...

*Bob POV, three days ago

I found myself being crushed by a rock. With a fair bit of effort, I managed to roll it off myself.

"A little help here?"

Looking to my right, I saw Unouwa with his legs trapped underneath the door. Effortlessly, I lifted it off of him.

"Really? Trapped by a door?"

"You try getting out of that, see how easy it is."

"Point taken."

I took the opportunity to stretch. From my peripheral vision, I noticed Eruhnin's body wandering around, looking for its head. Eruhnin's head was stuck up in a tree, so I climbed up to get it, then returned it to the other half. It tried to put the head back on, but something stopped it.

"I think I lost a piece of my spinal cord."

"You should keep yourself like that, it makes you look creepy."

"Really? You think so, Bob?"

Happy, he lowered his head and held it in his arms.

"We're lucky zombies can reincarnate once. If we die again, it's game over for us. I'm not going into a fight like that again unprepared. I'm getting better gear underground. Feel free to join me, or not."

I picked up my iron sword, then started towards the cave systems. Unouwa and Eruhnin hesitated, then decided to catch up to me.

"I want revenge on Light. One of us will die, for good this time."

**Here is where I start giving the mobs bigger roles. What do you think? Rate out of banana!**

**WB: I rate it grapefruit.**

**You couldn't have rated it at least peach? **

**WB: You got something against grapefruit?**

**Not personally, but two of my family members are allergic.**

**WB: So, why do you dislike pineapples, then?**

**Let's stop before we create a fruit salad. On to the reviews! WizardOfEnder007, I wish you would have asked sooner. This is a difficult decision to make, since xEnderAwesomex technically missed the deadline, but it was only by a little bit. You, on the other hand, have missed it by a long shot. LolloBlue96, your wish has been fulfilled, lol. Ducks Are Neat, I wonder, any relation to Ducks are nice? Lol, jk. To everyone else, thank you! Anyways, see you all next time!**


	4. Downtown Chaos

**Hello everyone, Dark here! I have a small update for you. I've landed myself a role in my school musical! What musical, you may be wondering?**

**WB: Nope, not wondering.**

**Nobody asked you. Stick around to the end, and I'll tell you! Ignore me if you don't care. Either way, without further ado, enjoy!**

*Light POV, one week later

The doctor led me out of the bland room, and for the first time in a week, I got to feel the fresh air flowing through my hair. I stretched, grateful to have the pain in my leg gone, even if there would be a permanent scar from the blade.

"How does it feel to be out?" Xena greeted me.

"It feels awesome to finally see the sky again!"

"So, what do you plan on doing now, now that you can walk properly again?"

"I've been thinking about what Villager #1 told me, and after a few days of thinking, I've decided that I'm going to venture towards Misirius."

She remained silent for a few seconds.

"Um, would you mind if I joined you?"

This caught me by surprise.

"Would your father approve?"

"Well, not exactly. You see, he's always been overprotective of me, and I never get to do anything. Please, take me with you!"

"I don't know..."

"C'mon, please? I'll stay out of trouble!"

The pleading look in her eyes broke me.

"I suppose you can come."

She squealed in delight.

"Thank you! I promise you won't regret this!"

* * *

><p>*Villager #1 POV<p>

Something was bothering me. Everything in the village seemed to have returned to normal, but a sinister feeling embedded itself in my gut, and I couldn't shake it off.

"Xena? Where are you?"

I looked around, when suddenly I heard a set of feet behind me. Turning, I expected to see Xena, but was instead greeted to a zombie wearing a helmet.

"Oh no. Zomb-"

Before I had the chance to alert the rest of the village, a green hand reached out from behind my back and forced my mouth closed.

"Be quiet, you. The only one I want here is you, so I would suggest you shut your trapdoor."

"Why do you want me?"

"You'll understand why once you join our side."

"Join your- You're going to bite me, aren't you."

"Clever boy."

Just then, I felt my neck being nibbled on, and my mind started to fog with an uncontrollable urge to bite someone. Even though I tried to resist, weakness spread throughout my body, and I collapsed onto the ground.

* * *

><p>*Light POV, inside Airie Ravine<p>

Xena and I were walking along when I felt a pain in my leg, and I had to stop and recover for a moment.

"Are you alright, Light?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit of pain in my leg."

Just then, a glint of sunlight reflecting off of something shiny on the walls of the ravine caught my eye. Unable to resist the temptation, I reached for it and pulled it out of the wall. When I looked at it, I could see that the mysterious object was a dazzling amulet, an amethyst plated in gold while leaving the center exposed.

"What is that?" Xena asked.

I felt tempted to put it on, but decided against it, instead putting it in my pocket.

"I'll keep it with me, in case we find the owner."

"No, I think I'll take it."

I turned to see the same skeleton from before, up on a ledge, with a menacing grin.

"Remember me? Adnesnev? No wolves around this time, bud, so I'll be taking that from you two."

I pulled out Robin's stone sword.

"Over my dead body."

"That can be arranged."

Just as Adnesnev began to draw back an arrow, a distant barking could be heard, closing in on the ravine.

"What?! How did they find me here?!"

Adnesnev bolted, followed closely by the wolves in hot pursuit, the wolf with the lone brown paw leading the pack. Xena looked at me questioningly, but I just shrugged.

* * *

><p>*Dark_Master_98 POV<p>

I chuckled at the stupidity of the skeleton.

"Adnesnev won't be a threat. That, I can be sure of. I'll have to be cautious about Bob, however."

As I continued to scout, I felt a tap on my back. An enderman looked at me, holding the gift of a rose.

"Hello, Vrytiem. Is that for me?"

Vrytiem nodded, and I delicately grasped the young, flowering rose.

"This will do nicely for my collection, thank you. By the way, nice timing with the dungeon destabilization. One moment later, and it would have been too late. I would have preferred to have Light unharmed, but at least he is alive. What is going on with Misirius? I've heard talk of a mob revolution."

Vrytiem shook his head, upset.

"That's bad. Warn the others, this could get ugly. Make sure Light and any friends of his are unharmed, bring them home if necessary."

Vrytiem nodded grimly, then teleported off to the outskirts of Misirius.

* * *

><p>*Light POV, border of Misirius<p>

As we approached the far wall of Airie Ravine, the rooftops of colossal skyscrapers could be seen from the bottom of the stone floor, looming like the mountains surrounding us in the ravine.

"Is that it?"

"Only one way to find out!"

I gave Xena a boost up onto a granite ledge, and she reached down to hoist me up. The sturdy ledge provided an excellent view, and the city of Misirius was breath-taking, from the concrete pathways to the bustle of the city commuters.

"So, what now? Should we start heading towards it?"

Just then, a gigantic black spider, detailed with a scarlet infinity symbol emblazoned onto its back, appeared at the crest of the ravine. It scouted its surroundings, then noticed us and started to meander towards us, a menacing gleam in its eyes. I pulled out my stone sword, ready for a fight.

"Well, well, what have we here? You weren't invited to this ravine, so I assume that you're trespassing."

"I'm sorry, we were just passing through." Xena apologized.

"Yes, I'm sure that you were. Funny, that's just what that player before told me. When I returned to my nest, however, half of my brothers had been killed, and the entire sugar storage depleted."

"We weren't the ones responsible for that-" I tried to reason with it.

"Yes, I'm sure you weren't, but who's to say that you won't attempt to do the same?"

The gargantuan spider reared up, poison dripping from its fangs. As it prepared to deliver a venomous bite, a lone arrow flew from the air and found a target in the back-right leg of the beast.

"Leave them alone!"

The spider turned towards the shooter, a young man dressed in a red and black checkered sweatshirt, with hazel eyes and hair, complete with blue jeans.

"Ow, that hurts! Why don't you mind your own business?"

"I can't let you kill them, or my title as Defender of Misirius and the surrounding area would be in jeopardy."

The spider almost chuckled at this.

"Well, the famous BajanCanadian, or should I say Mitch? How interesting. I'm not done with these two yet, so you'll have to wait your turn."

"Don't you play those mind games with me. Your kind isn't wanted around these parts, so I'd suggest you scram."

"So, you want me to leave my home, which my family has lived in for centuries? That isn't happening anytime soon."

"Fine, I guess I'll have to force you out if you won't leave willingly."

Mitch drew back his bow and fired, perfectly hitting the other back leg.

"Ow! Alright, fine, you win for now, but this is not the last you will see of Donnoju! Mark my words, we will meet again, and I will have reinforcements!"

Cursing, the spider retreated down a dark hole. Mitch put away his bow, satisfied.

"Are you two alright? Did the spider harm you in any way?"

"No, we're fine, thank you for your help. Did I hear you say that you were the Defender of Misirius?" I asked.

"Well, I don't like to brag, but that is true. I'm also the runner-up to the Champion of the Survival Games. I'm going to assume that you two are new around here, since you didn't recognize me. As you probably have realized by now, my name is BajanCanadian, but I prefer Mitch, or Benja. May I ask yours?"

"I'm Xena, and my friend here is called Light."

I stepped towards Mitch, gesturing a handshake, but Mitch turned it into a fist-bump.

"No need to be formal with me. Hey, seeing as you two are new, would you like a tour of Misirius?"

"That would be greatly appreciated."

"Dood, you need to work on your bro-to-bro speech, you speak way too formally."

* * *

><p>*Donnoju POV<p>

Gingerly, I pulled out the arrows from my back legs, wincing at the pain.

"I hate that sapling of a birch tree. Not only is he arrogant, but he has the skills to back it up."

I turned the corner of the tunnel into the nest, and was greeted by my brother and nemesis, Pahncroz, marked by an aqua-blue trifecta symbol on his back.

"Hey there, found any sugar? Or were you too busy with your rock collection?"

"Bug off, Pahncroz. I don't have time for this, I have to talk to Mom."

"Aw, you can't find your toy pig?"

"Smettila di torturare tuo fratello, Pahncroz. Cosa vuoi dirmi, Donnoju?"

**"Stop torturing your brother, Pahncroz. What do you want to tell me, Donnoju?"**

My mother spun her way down from the rocky roof of the dark cavern, distinguished easily by her unique emerald eyes and her inability to speak anything but the old tongue of Incera. Out of habit, I bowed down.

"So di essere la Regina Ragno, ma non devi inchinarti a tua madre. Dimmi solo a cosa stai pensando, tesoro."

**"I know I'm the Spider Queen, but you don't have to bow down to your mother. Just tell me what is on your mind, honey."**

"Beh, ho trovato degli intrusi nella valle. Ho provato a ucciderli, come avevi ordinato, ma sono stato costretto alla ritirata, poiché il Difensore di Misirius ha interferito."

**"I tried to kill them, as you ordered, but I was forced to retreat, since the Defender of Misirius interfered."**

She looked perturbed by this.

"Perché lo farebbe, sapendo che un tale atto romperebbe il trattato di pace? Speravo avrebbe rispettato i patti, ma devo aver sperato troppo. Un'azione come questa deve essere contrastata. Voi due, preparatevi a combattere."

**"Why would he do that, knowing such an act would break the peace treaty? I was hoping he would have respected the deal, but I must have hoped for too much. An act like that needs to be countered. You two, get ready to fight."**

* * *

><p>*Mitch POV<p>

"So, what bring the two of you here? Tourism? Looking for a job? Competing in the Survival Games?"

We approached the city borders. I waved to the border security guards, dressed in blue leather armor and equipped with iron swords, and they nodded, opening the gates for us without hesitation.

"They know who I am, so I don't need to give identification, and you two are obviously with me, so you're cool with them too."

"We're mainly here for the tourism." Xena explained.

"Oh, in that case, Misirius has plenty of attractions, including of course, the most well-known Survival Games arena in this region! The only other arena that can be compared to this one in popularity is the one in the nearby Sky Kingdom, located in the Sailintu Plains, just south of Misirius."

As I was explaining this, a familiar flash of grey fur burst around the corner and ran into me, knocking me over.

"Nacho, I told you to stay with Jerome!"

"He did, biggums!"

Jerome, the bacca in a fancy black tuxedo I knew and loved, stepped out from behind the corner.

"Hey, what's up, dood? Why's Nacho out here with you?"

"Little Nacho here wanted to go out for a run. I hope you don't mind."

"Of course not. Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?"

"I am!"

"I was referring to Nacho, but sure, you too. Oh, wait, I haven't introduced you to my new friends yet!"

I gestured towards Light and Xena.

"Jerome, this is Light, and this is Xena. Xena, Light, this is my biggums, Jerome, and my cute little puppy, Nacho!"

"Aw, Nacho's so cute! Can I pet him?" Xena asked excitedly.

"Go for it!"

She picked Nacho up and started to stroke his fur. Nacho resisted for a few seconds, but relented and let her.

"I think he's warming up to you!"

Out of nowhere, a figure wearing a striped shirt with red hair and headphones, neon green eyes, black pants and red converse turned the corner.

"Mitch, Jerome, I challenge you to a round of Survival Games!"

"We're not available right now, Radha."

"You don't seem to be doing much at the moment."

"We're guiding tourists around. Besides, there have been rumors of a mob invasion, and I need to be ready for that. I won't be able to readily respond in the middle of a game."

"Sounds more like you're making excuses."

Just as I tried to argue, a blaring alarm rang throughout Misirius, and red blinking lights started flashing throughout the crowded street. Thick steel doors slammed down on the windowsills, shielding the window panes from destruction. Nacho looked around in alarm, scrambled out of Xena's arms, and hopped into mine, seeking protection and comfort in the tender hands of his loving owner.

"See? That's why. If you want to survive, find the nearest authorities."

Without complaining, she headed off to the nearest police station. I turned to Jerome, serious now.

"Biggums, you know what this means. We're heading to the border control now."

* * *

><p>*Light POV<p>

I stepped forward.

"What about us?"

Jerome turned to me.

"Oh yeah, you two. You're new here, so you don't know the emergency procedure."

"Why don't they come with us, biggums? We can keep them safe, can't we?" Mitch suggested.

"Yeah, I guess so. If you want to come with us, you'll have to do everything we say. Agreed?"

"Of course, that's a given." Xena agreed without hesitation.

"Alright. Can you hold Nacho for me? I need to have both hands available if need be."

Mitch petted Nacho, who started whimpering, before handing him over to Xena.

"Alright, follow us, and be as quiet as possible."

* * *

><p>*Border of Misirius, Donnoju POV<p>

"Are we there yet?" Pahncroz asked.

"Real mature, Pahncroz."

"You're just jealous."

"Smettetela di battibeccare, tutti e due!"

**"Stop bickering, both of you."**

Mom shook her head in annoyance, tired of our nearly constant arguing.

We stopped in a open section of a rounded, dimly lit stone tunnel, constructed in the otherwise flat plains encompassing Misirius.

"Perché ci siamo fermati qui?"

**"Why have we stopped here?"** I inquired.

"Stiamo aspettando i nostri alleati. Gli scheletri dovrebbero arrivare a breve."

**"We're waiting for our allies. The skeletons should be arriving shortly."** Mom promised.

Not even one minute later, true to the Spider Queen's words, a group of four skeletons entered the cavern, each wearing a leather helmet to shield themselves from the bright afternoon sun, with the leader present, cloaked with a leather chestplate.

"Arachna." The leader acknowledged.

"Skeletor, lieta di vederti di nuovo."

**"Skeletor, nice to see you again."**

"Altrettanto. Veniamo al sodo, che ne dici? Per quale motivo chi hai convocati qui?"

**"You too. Let's get down to business, shall we? What have you called us here for?"**

"Penso tu sappia cosa sia successo. Gli umani stanno diventando nuovamente arroganti, arrivando al punto di rompere il trattato di pace."

**"I think you know what has been going on. The humans are becoming arrogant once again, going to the point of breaking the peace treaty."**

"È così? Non posso credere che una volta ero uno di loro. Sono così inaffidabili, mi danno la nausea."

**"Is that so? I can't believe I was once one of them. They're so untrustworthy, it makes me sick."**

"Yeah, we should crush those humans right now!" One of his followers enthusiastically agreed. Skeletor turned to face him, his shady eye sockets appearing even creepier than usual.

"Did I say you could speak, Atisfactio?"

Atisfactio shrunk down under the glare.

"I'm sorry, it won't happen again!"

Skeletor held his pose a moment longer.

"It better not."

Skeletor turned back to Mom. I gulped, suddenly finding myself a little afraid of his temperament, plus the fact that unlike Mom, he could speak both Inglese and Incera.

"Allora, dove eravamo? Ah, sì, gli umani. Gli scheletri sono dalla vostra. Combatteremo al vostro fianco, Arachna."

**"Now, where were we? Ah, yes, the humans. The skeletons have your back. We'll fight alongside you, Arachna."**

"Perfetto. Ora non ci resta che aspettare che arrivi il clan degli zombie."

**"Perfect. Now there's nothing left to do but waiting for the zombie clan to arrive.**

Just then, I heard the distant sound of a siren blaring. One of the other skeletons peeked outside the tunnel to investigate the disturbance.

"I think the zombies went without us."

"Are you serious, Akintemol?"

Skeletor shoved Akintemol aside, and I managed to catch a glimpse outside as well. A large group of zombies were stumbling down a hill, heading to border security.

"Those brainless morons are going to screw everything up! We don't have any choice, we must attack now."

* * *

><p>*Light POV<p>

The city gates came within visible range. Jerome made a subtle hand gesture to Mitch, who nodded. Beside me, Xena held Nacho tightly, not wanting to lose him. Nacho didn't exactly seem thrilled about the predicament, but went along with it. Mitch stepped out from the cover of the shadows, looked around, then indicated it was safe to proceed. As I followed Jerome, the ground began to shake lightly, then promptly stopped.

"What was that?"

"I don't know, but we should hurry." Jerome whispered back.

Just then, a piercing shriek split the air. Mitch immediately pulled out his bow and drew back an arrow, ready to shoot anything that looked threatening. Jerome reached for his back, and retrieved a diamond axe, in excellent condition.

"Betty, don't fail me now." he muttered.

Out of a narrow alleyway, a brutally beaten Caucasian male with brown hair and brown eyes, wearing a blue hoodie, blue jeans, and black shoes, struggled onto the wide street, being closely followed by a crippled zombie. With one shot, Mitch returned the zombie to the world of the dead permanently, then rushed over to help the victim.

"Are you alright? Speak to me!"

He groaned, then looked agonizingly at Mitch.

"They've already infiltrated Misirius."

Mitch pulled out a roll of bandages, then started applying it to his worst injured areas.

"Were you bitten anywhere?"

"Not that I can remember."

"Alright, that's good. You should survive, but just in case, we're bringing you to the authorities so they can make sure. What is your name?"

As he opened his mouth to answer, a shiver overtook him, and he fainted.

"He needs attention now. Can one of you give me a hand in picking him up?"

I volunteered to help. Between the two of us, we managed to prop him up onto our shoulders, his head slumped down and legs uselessly dangling in the air. With two people, the weight was bearable. Together, the four of us proceeded to the main security gate, leaving behind the body of the zombie. A duo of officers noticed us approaching and rushed over to provide assistance.

"What happened?"

"Get this man some help. He needs it desperately."

One of the officers took him from our shoulders and lifted him onto his back, then entered the office and disappeared from sight. The other officer remained with us, communicating in code with a walkie talkie.

"This is a 10-33, I repeat, this is a 10-33. 10-12."

"10-4, standing by for further instruction."

The officer turned to us. On his nameplate, I could make out the name Deadfrontier20.

"The situation isn't good, I'm afraid. Zombies have penetrated our defenses, and skeletons and spiders appear to be on their way as well."

"Are all the citizens safe?" Mitch asked.

"Most of them should be on their way to the refuge in Sky Kingdom. I don't think we're going to be able to save everyone, though. Some are still trapped in by the zombies. We don't have much time left."

"Actually, you have no time left at all."

We looked up to see Adnesnev watching us up on the ledge of a building. Mitch took a shot at him, but missed.

"This city is doomed, you know. Those pesky wolves aren't around to chase me away this time, and my brother is coming. He has a hatred for your kind, so you'll be lucky if you're left in one piece."

"No, I won't allow it!" Mitch yelled in defiance.

"You can't change fate. Light, you and your friends are screwed. Not even Notch can save you now."

Just as Mitch reached for another arrow, Adnesnev slipped into the shadows. Jerome sighed in resignation.

"I didn't want to tell you, Mitch, but my senses tell me the skeleton is right. You know how my senses are always right."

"I know, your premonitions never lie. Much as I hate to say it, this city is doomed to fall."

Deadfrontier20 shook his head.

"Are you serious? The Benja Misirius knows would never give up in the face of destruction! You're supposed to be our defender! So act like it!"

Hearing these words seemed to give Mitch inspiration.

"You know what? You're right, we can't just sit by and let this happen! Deadfrontier20, send in reinforcements, we're going to fight back."

"Well then, that makes this raid much more fun."

We circled rapidly to perceive a group of skeletons by the gates. The leader stepped forward tauntingly.

"Skeletor is the name, destruction is my game."

"Why are you doing this?" Xena stepped forward. Skeletor simply chuckled, a deep hollow laugh, practically radiating a menacing air.

"My dear, this is simply retaliation. You expect the mobs to take a defeat without an eye for an eye? This is for Arachna's deceased children."

"Arachna?" Deadfrontier20 asked confusedly, amid his communications with his walkie talkie.

"Arachna, puoi uscire adesso."

**"Arachna, you may come out now."**

Through the crumbling wreckage of a building crawled a massive spider, towering up to half the height of Skeletor, accented with emerald-hue eyes, followed by two younger spiders, who appeared to be eager to fight. At a closer glance, one of the younger spiders, the one with the scarlet infinity symbol, could clearly be determined that it was the same spider we met in Airie Ravine.

"Grazie, Skeletor. Voi umani avete ucciso i miei figli, dunque preparatevi a..."

**"Thank you, Skeletor. You humans killed my children, so prepare to-"**

"I can't tell what that spider is saying." Deadfrontier blatantly stated.

"She said you are going to be invited to a party." The other young spider, branded with a blue trifecta, claimed, bored.

"No, I speak their language. I was taught it growing up in my village. Arachna definitely said nothing about a party." Jerome interjected.

"Oh really, you can understand us, eh? Cosa sto dicendo, allora?"

**What am I saying, then?"**

"You just said 'What am I saying, then?', ho tradotto correttamente?"

**have I translated correctly?"**

"Oh, you're good. Sorry, mom, continue."

"Allora, come stavo dicendo prima che Pahncroz mi interrompesse, voi umani avete ucciso i miei figli, dunque preparatevi a subire lo stesso destino."

**"As I was saying before Pahncroz interrupted, you humans killed my children, so prepare to share their fate."**

The rest of us stood around in confusion, trying to understand the conversation.

"Translation please, biggums?" Mitch requested.

"She thinks we killed her children, so now she wants to kill us in return."

"Can you tell her we didn't do it? I don't know who did it, but we're not responsible."

Jerome turned back to Arachna, translating the words.

"Basta con le parole, facciamola finita qui. Sette contro cinque, che le probabilità possano essere mai a vostro favore."

**"Enough talk, we're ending this. 7 against 5, may the odds be never in your favor."**

"Era ora che cominciassimo a combattere, mi sto annoiando."

**"About time we started fighting, I'm getting bored."** One of Skeletor's minions muttered.

Skeletor gave it a whack on the back of the head.

"Atisfactio, idiota! Perché io ti tenga ancora con me, non ne ho idea."

**"Atisfactio, you idiot. Why I still keep you around, I have no idea."**

"Scusa, capo."

**"Sorry, boss."**

Jerome pulled out Betty.

"We're not getting out of this fight."

* * *

><p>*Dark_Master_98 POV<p>

"I think it's time that I go home now."

Just then, my mind began to cloud over, and I couldn't think straight. I tried whacking my head against a tree several times, with no success.

**Hello, Dark_Master_98.**

"W-who are you?"

**I think you already know. Remember your father?**

"What about him?"

**His death wasn't a coincidence. That's the problem with your kind, your minds are easy to infiltrate.**

"No, you c-can't..."

**Relax, I'm not going to kill you... yet. I want you to do something first. Something I am unable to do.**

"I'm not going to... AGHH!"

I collapsed, writhing on the ground.

**You haven't even heard what I want you to do yet.**

"Whatever it is, I don't want any part of it."

**I would suggest you obey me. This isn't even half of what I can do to you.**

"No... ACK! Okay, fine! What is it?""

**I don't like Light. Your mission is to kill him. Not immediately, but when I tell you to.**

"I don't app... STOP IT!"

**Not until you agree.**

"Never!"

**You're going to play that game, are you? Fine, I'll provide a little motivation. Your home is slowly collapsing, and killing Light is the only way to stop total destruction.**

"I don't believe you."

**You will. You'll see.**

The intense pain slowly faded, and after a few minutes, I was able to stand. I adjusted my fedora, looked around to see if anyone saw my moment of weakness, and seeing nobody, I snapped my fingers, disappearing in a purple mass of particles.

* * *

><p>*Light POV<p>

On one side, the skeletons readied their bows, with no mercy. The other side of the battlefield hosted a trio of spiders, poison dripping from their fangs. As if to confirm our dire predicament had no escape, both of the two escape routes available burst into scorching flames, sealing the twelve of us in. Mitch retrieved his own bow, Jerome firmly grasped his Betty, Deadfrontier20 wielded an iron sword, and Xena and I each took out stone swords.

"Get ready to fight, everyone. Even you, Nacho." Mitch warned.

Nacho, who had been hiding in the shadow of a building the whole time, slowly peeked out from his hiding place.

"A puppy? How cute. Guess that makes it 6 of you to kill." Skeletor voiced menacingly.

He pulled back his bow to make the first shot, aiming directly at Nacho. However, just as he was about to fire, Mitch shot first at Skeletor's bow, knocking off his aim and resulting in it harmlessly bouncing off a wall.

"Nobody tries to kill Nacho and gets away with it." Mitch lashed out at him.

With this, the true battle started. Deadfrontier20 was immediately targeted by Pahncroz, and he just barely dodged a deadly bite. Dead retaliated by stabbing Pahncroz right in the trifecta, and Pahncroz screeched in pain. Hearing the pain of her beloved child, Arachna turned and shot out a web to steal Dead's iron sword. Donnoju, meanwhile, was targeting Xena. Xena was managing to keep Donnoju back, but from the looks of it, she wouldn't last too long. Mitch and Jerome were being targeted by Skeletor and two of his allies, and I was being targeted by the remaining skeleton. Nacho cowered in the corner, out of fear.

"So, you feeling lucky, punk?" The skeleton asked me as it shot arrow after arrow.

As I narrowly dodged, I noticed how it was making an effort to hold onto its hat.

"You attached to that hat or something?"

"None of your business. I just like this hat, that is all."

"Oh, then you won't mind if I take it off?"

"Wait, what?" It asked fearfully.

Taking the moment of distraction to my advantage, I charged, grabbed the hat right off, and landed behind him elegantly. The skeleton screeched in sheer pain due to the intense sunlight, then ran around blindly trying to find a safe place to hide, accidentally running straight into the blaze. I could hear it shrieking, then the skeleton, still slightly visible through the fire, collapsed. I took that moment to regain composure. Looking around, I noticed that both Xena and Deadfrontier were in trouble. Dead was farther away, but his situation was more dire. Xena looked like she could still go on a little more, and was closer. Luckily, I didn't have to decide, because Jerome rushed in just in time and knocked Dead out of the way just in time. Grateful, I assisted Xena, and together, we managed to push Pahncroz back.

"Thanks."

Just as I was about to respond, a sticky web covered both of us, and we both fell to the ground in a heap. As much as we struggled, the bonds of the web proved to be too strong. Looking over, I noticed Dead and Jerome had fallen into the same situation. Mitch was now all alone, fighting three enemies at once.

"Give up now, and I might spare your puppy." Skeletor proclaimed.

"I will fight to the grave to protect this city."

"So be it."

Skeletor pulled back his bow one last time, and the arrow fired, aimed straight to his heart.

"MITCH!" Jerome screamed, unable to do anything to break free.

Just when it seemed like all hope was lost, three mysterious tall, black figures appeared out of thin air in a puff of purple dust, one to Mitch, one to Xena and I, and the last to Dead and Jerome. The three grabbed us in unison, then everything went pitch-black.

**Dat cliffhanger though. Before I say anything else, a very big thanks goes out to LolloBlue96 for providing the Italian translations, or should I say, Incera. I could have easily just called it Italian, but eh, different dimension, different names. You're awesome! All of you are! About that musical, I am playing Woodstock from Charlie Brown!**

**WB: You're not a good man, Dark.**

**Haha, very funny. Here, take a complimentary bag of Peanuts.**

**WB: Thanks, but I'm allergic to nuts.**

**I don't know if I'll actually have any lines, since Woodstock is a bird, but I'll take what I can get. Onto the reviews! General Pyrus, the wolves play a large role, but no spoilers, so just sit back and eat some nachos. May I recommend Doritos? Angerunleashed4doomsday, of course! Yours was interesting, due to the backstory, but I did the best I could, and it won't be just a one-chapter appearance. Rate out of cube!**

**WB: I rate it Mobius Strip.**

**That isn't a valid choice, though I do like that shape. This end-note has gone on for far too long. See you all next Thursday!**


	5. Key Issues

**Hello everyone, Dark here! New chapter, yay!**

**WB: Yay. If I may make an announcement?**

**Huh, wasn't expecting an announcement from you. Go ahead!**

**WB: You're probably wondering where the prequel is. I'm going to inform you that the first chapter will be here, very soon, so be on the lookout.**

**Well, that was unexpected. Anyways, without further ado, enjoy!**

*Dark_Master_98 POV

After the customary darkness, a barren land of pale stone and obsidian pillar opened up in front of me. I took a deep breath, stretched out, then unfurled my hidden black wings and long tail.

"Ah, finally. I missed these wings. Too bad I can only use them in this dimension. Nobody outside of this dimension can know about my secret, or I would be hunted to death."

I decided to exercise my wings for a few minutes, lifting myself into the air. A familiar body soared beside me, similar wings and tail, but with the difference of grey trousers, a plain white t-shirt, hazel hair, and black headphones with purple earpieces.

"It's been a while. You know time moves faster in here then in the other dimension, right? Do you realize what I had to put up with?"

"Relax, Lox. I always return, you know that. Thank you for looking after the endermen in my absence."

"Don't call me Lox, you know I hate that nickname."

"Nah, I know deep down you like it."

He rolled his eyes, though I could tell he did it in a playful matter. We landed together on top of the tallest pillar on the island. I looked around at my kingdom, remembering the words of the voice, then shaking it off.

"So, when will I get my turn to go out?"

"Soon, Lox. I know how much you want to see Sky again, but you know that the prophecy is destined to come true soon. Speaking of the prophecy..."

Just then, a tiny endermite teleported up onto our platform, out of breath. It looked at us, then frantically started to hop, looking down.

"What is it?" I asked.

Following its gaze, I could just make out five humans, lying facedown on the stone. Three endermen stood beside them, dutifully watching over them, including Vrytiem.

"Well, looks like he had to bring them here to keep them safe. Better here than dead. Lox, wait here until I call you."

* * *

><p>*Light POV<p>

**Hello, Light.**

"Huh? Who are you?"

**I've been keeping my eyes on you. I think that you have potential.**

"What are you talking about?"

**Dark_Master_98 is secretly plotting to kill you, I thought I should warn you.**

"Who are you?"

**Names aren't important. What is important is that you watch out. You'll be returning to consciousness any moment now, remember my words.**

A soft brown light filled my thoughts, and the next thing I knew, everything turned cold and dark. I panicked, then realized my eyes were closed. I slowly opened them to a sideways view of a bleak land of pale stone.

"Oh good, he's waking up."

Groaning, I looked up to see Dark_Master_98 looking down at me. The voice of the mysterious individual reverberated in my brain, but I decided to put it aside for now. Dark offered me a hand, and I gratefully accepted.

"Dimensional teleportation can be rough for beginners. I'm sorry you had to go through that, but at least you're safe, right?"

"Dimensiowhat?"

"I'll explain once your friends wake up."

Right as he finished, I noticed Mitch in my peripheral vision, stirring.

"Gah! Not the hear- wha? Where?"

Mitch looked to his right and noticed Jerome facedown on the ground.

"No! Jerome!"

He broke down into tears.

"I didn't get say say that I lov-"

Just then, Jerome awakened. He looked at Mitch in confusion.

"What's wrong, biggums?"

Mitch embraced Jerome.

"You scared me! I thought for sure that you were dead!"

"Nah, a bacca doesn't die that easily. By the way, what was that you were saying right before I woke up?"

Mitch looked away in embarrassment, a clear blush on his face.

"Don't worry about it. It was nothing. Seriously, forget about it."

After a few more awkward seconds, they noticed their situation.

"Where are we? Light, any explanation?"

"I've got nothing. Dark_Master_98 will explain once Xena and Deadfrontier20 wake up.

Mitch and Jerome looked at each other mischievously, whispering to each other. After a moment, they nodded. Mitch crept up close to Deadfrontier20, Jerome doing the same with Xena. Mitch quietly counted to three, then the two of the hollered as loud as they could. Deadfrontier20 and Xena shot up into the air, looking around alertly.

"Yes sir, reporting for duty! Wait, what? This isn't the training camp..." Deadfrontier was clearly confused. Xena, on the other hand, just kicked Jerome right in the stomach. Jerome fell back slightly, in pain.

"Ow! Did you have to kick me?!" Jerome complained.

"Don't do that again!"

Mitch burst out into laughter at the misfortune of Jerome. Even though Jerome was annoyed, he couldn't help but join into the laughing. Deadfrontier looked around in confusion. He tried using his walkie talkie, but got nothing except static, so he just gave up. Eventually, the laughter died down.

"So, what is going on? Where are we? Xena asked.

Xena looked around, wandering to the edge of the island.

"I wouldn't go near there if I were you." Dark_Master_98 warned.

Ignoring the warning, she crept closer, peering into the endless void down below. Suddenly, the stone beneath her crumbled, and she started to fall in.

"What did I just tell you? Vrytiem, go save her, please." Dark rolled his eyes.

A tall, black figure teleported over to the edge, grabbed Xena, then teleported her back. Xena looked up at Vrytiem gratefully.

"Thank you."

"Don't look directly into her eyes!"

The warning came too late. Vrytiem shrieked, then started to devour Xena whole.

"Vrytiem! Spit her out this instant!"

Reluctantly, she pulled Xena out of her mouth and set her down. Xena was covered in a purple goop, and she shuddered in horror.

"I warned you."

* * *

><p>*Skeletor POV<p>

Just as the arrow was about to strike a fatal blow, the five vanished mysteriously, leaving behind nothing but a faint trail of purple particles. Frustrated, I slammed my head against the wall.

"What?! No! He was right there! How?!"

"Um, boss? Are you alright?" Akintemol asked timidly.

"Am I alright? Am I alright?! No, I am not alright! My kill got away, no explanation whatsoever, a skeleton perished in the fire, my flawless reputation as a killer who never fails is in jeopardy, and you have the nerve to ask me if I am alright?!"

I violently grabbed him by the ribcage.

"I have to kill something, so give me one good reason why it shouldn't be you."

"Uh, because... because I'm already dead?"

"Oh really? I can easily kill you again, just by throwing you into the fire. As a matter of fact..."

With almost no effort whatsoever, I lifted him up, but just as I wound back, Arachna tapped my back.

"Non sono dell'umore, Arachna. Devo sfogare la mia frustrazione uccidendo qualcuno."

**"Not in the mood, Arachna. I have to vent my frustrations by killing someone."**

"Perché uccidere un alleato, quando puoi uccidere un nemico? A volte sei troppo accecato dalla rabbia per notare ciò che è ovvio. Il cucciolo è ancora qui, rannicchiato nell'ombra."

**"Why kill an ally, when you can kill an enemy? You are too blinded by rage sometimes to notice the obvious. The puppy is still here, cowering in the shadows."**

"Quale cucciolo? Aspetta, quello appartenente al Difensore? Sembra un bersaglio decisamente migliore."

**"What puppy? Wait, the one the Defender owns? That sounds like a much better target."**

I slowly lowered Akintemol to the ground, resisting the urge to toss him. Once on the ground, Akintemol gasped in relief. I turned my attention to the shady concrete corner, hosting the terrified Nacho. Slowly, I stepped closer to it, savoring the upcoming kill.

"Hello, my name is Skeletor Montoya. Your owner killed my father, prepare to die."

As I retracted my bow, a resounding barking filled the air. Surprised by the barking, I looked back to view a pack of wolves racing towards us. As if on cue, the last of the fire died out, giving the pack a clear path to us. Akintemol and Atisfactio immediately started to retreat.

"There is no way in Nether I'm sticking around!" Atisfactio screeched in fear.

"Get back here, fools!"

It was no use. Atisfactio and Akintemol were gone within seconds. I counted the number of wolves in the pack, equaling at least 10. Clearly, the 4 of us remaining were at a disadvantage.

"Might I suggest a retreat?" Pahncroz suggested.

"I suppose we have no choice but to retreat, because of those two idiots."

Reluctantly, the four of us retreated. Once we were at a far enough distance, I looked back to see the wolf pack tending to the puppy. The wolf with the brown paw growled at us, then the pack headed back from where they came.

* * *

><p>*Nacho POV<p>

I shuddered in fear, looking back at the mean mobs. One of the female wolves nuzzled me in an effort to calm me down.

"Don't fear, little one. You're safe with us."

"Who are you? Where is my owner?"

"I don't know where your owner is, but we'll look after you. I'll explain more once we leave. Jusliek, are you almost done over there?"

The wolf with the brown paw looked back to us, the wolf whom I assumed was the leader.

"They won't dare attack us. We clearly outnumber them. We can go now."

Jusliek turned around and started towards the city limits, the others followed suit. The one who was talking to me gently nudged me, indicating that I follow. Grateful to put some distance between the mean mobs who tried to kill me and my owner, I obediently joined the protection of the pack. I stopped right as we passed the gates to look back at the once glorious city I grew up in, now reduced to burning rubble. A different wolf stepped beside me.

"I know how hard it is to lose something or someone you love, I've experienced both. Back when I was just a cub, there was a forest fire that ravaged my home. Most of the pack got out, but my father, who also happened to be our leader, tragically perished in the fire, saving my younger sister Yuceip from a burning log. Too young, my elder brother Jusliek had no choice but to take the stand, being the next heir."

He stopped, holding his head down as if he didn't want to remember.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"No, I don't mind. What is your name?" I consoled him.

"My name? Oh, my name is Weiramasq. You've already seen Jusliek, of course, and the one who greeted you was my oldest sister, Runein. I'll introduce you to the others later, when we have more time."

"Hey, what are you two doing back there? Come on, we have to be in the plains by sundown, or we can't catch any rabbits to eat!" One of the darker-colored wolves called back in annoyance.

"Oh, sorry!"

Weiramasq turned to me.

"We should probably catch up to the others."

* * *

><p>*Light POV<p>

Out of nowhere, an iridescent purple light began to emanate from Xena's body. She quickly disappeared in the radiance.

"Hm, didn't see that one coming." Dark_Master_98 calmly commented.

When the light faded and she grew visible once again, I noticed a few changes. First of all, her eye color had changed to a brilliant shade of sapphire. Another change was that she was slightly taller than before. In addition, the purple goop was completely gone from her. She looked down in surprise.

"What?" was the only thing she could muster.

"I knew that hybridization existed, but I've never actually seen it happen before in person. It appears that the saliva from Vrytiem, combined with void energy, can create an Enderman hybrid. Only other case of hybridization I've heard of was Lox, who was accidentally hybridized by my blood and an explosion."

The name Lox seemed to strike something in Mitch and Jerome, but it looked like they were having trouble remembering. Xena on the other hand, looked like she was on the verge of panic. Deadfrontier tried to comfort her, but she pushed him away.

"Stay away! I'm a monster!"

"No, you're not. You may be slightly different now, but-"

"You're not helping, Light."

Dark_Master_98 sighed.

"I think you may need another hybrid to help you come to terms with it. Lox, can you come here?"

A mysterious figure soared above, then slowly descended, strangely trying to keep his back to Mitch and Jerome.

"You called?"

"I know you've gotten used to being a hybrid by now, but we have a new hybrid, and she doesn't seem to happy about her situation. Care to give her a hand?"

"I suppose, though you could have asked a little nicer."

"Just do it, Lox." Dark rolled his eyes.

Ignoring that last comment, Lox landed beside Xena, who shied away.

"I know how hard it is at the beginning. Trust me, I've experienced it firsthand, the insecurities, not knowing if your friends will reject your new form, not knowing your new powers. It's not as bad as you might think, though. Having powers can be fun, you know! You're an enderman hybrid, correct? So, you can probably teleport now!"

Her eyes widened at the mention of teleportation.

"I can teleport?"

"Only one way to find out! Try closing your eyes, and envision yourself standing on top of that obsidian pillar over there."

Xena closed her eyes, and a moment later, she disappeared in a puff of sapphire particles, reappearing on top of the pillar.

"Hey, I did it! Wait, my foot is stuck inside the pillar!"

"Eh, nobody's perfect first time around. First time I tried to fly, I got two feet, then rammed a pillar. Point is, practice makes perfect! Keep trying, and you'll get the hang of it!"

Xena teleported back, and now I noticed a slight cloud of borderline purple particles around her.

"Can you explain where we are now? Now that I think about it, where is Nacho? Is he safe? Nacho!"

"Nacho is fine, Mitch. A pack of wolves is looking after him."

"How would you know? For that matter, how do you know my name? I don't recall telling you." Mitch asked suspiciously.

"I have observers located through your dimension. As you might have guessed by now, you aren't in your home dimension. We call this dimension simply the End."

"What?! Send us back right now!"

"It isn't safe yet for you to return, your assassins are still waiting around. Returning you now would defeat the purpose of saving you."

"Assassins?"

"Let me start from the beginning. Do you know the prophecy?"

"Yeah, it was passed to me through my village. I believe the words were 'Three worlds unite. Beware the Entity, who desires reversion and destruction. The 303 will lie within Void. Key destruction imminent, one enago. Light will rise to bring down,' am I correct?" Jerome quoted.

"Partially, the translator was slightly off on his translation. Understandable, since the writing was slightly destroyed by the passing of actual words are 'Three worlds shall collide. Beware Entity who desires reversion and destruction, 303 lies within Void. Key of destruction imminent, one enago. The light will rise to send back.' This was right, except for one minor detail. They completely missed the last piece, which was destroyed. The original had an addition to the end, 'Twelve guardians scattered through the lands, when brought together, create key to creation."

"Okay, but what does this have to do with us?" Jerome inquired.

"I'm getting to that. An enago roughly equals 10,010 years, 3 months, and 27 days, according to your time standards. When the prophecy was written, it was approximately 10,010 years, 2 months, and 27 days ago. In other words, the key of destruction is 1 month away from fruition. The light will rise most likely refers to your friend, Light."

Everyone turned to look at me. I felt uncomfortable under the staring.

"You're saying that I am a key part of the prophecy? How do you know for sure?"

"From the moment I met you, I felt something was unique about you. My suspicions were confirmed when you chose the name Light, when you could have chosen literally anything else."

Thankfully, the attention was shifted off of me a few moments later, when Dark resumed.

"The missing part is fairly self-explanatory. Twelve individuals scattered through the land hold the potential to create the key of creation."

"Can you elaborate on the keys?" Mitch asked.

"There are two keys, Creation and Destruction. Each one holds immense power, so much that all but the most pure individuals can become corrupted just by hearing about them. In fact, one of the creation trio became too obsessed with the Key of Destruction, resulting in his banishment to the dimension he created. Urban legend says that his name is Herobrine. Anyways, the Creation Key has the power to create anything out of nothing, while the Destruction Key can destroy anything, including life itself, except for the complete Creation Key. However, it does have the power to destroy Creation Key fragments. There are other keys, such as Fire, Ice, Bravery, Intelligence, but none as influential as Creation and Destruction, except maybe Peace. Any other questions about the Keys?"

"What about the Key of Destruction? How is it summoned?" Deadfrontier asked.

"I'd rather not answer that right now. Anything else?"

Nothing else was asked.

"Very well. As mentioned before, each of the twelve Guardians, are in essence, the Creation Key fragments, in a living physical manifestation. When all twelve come together, the Key of Creation will be summoned, and only Light is 100% guaranteed to not be corrupted by the power. You may be wondering who these individuals are, that is your mission to find out. One is already among you, you may know him as BajanCanadian."

Jerome turned towards Mitch.

"Wow buddy, I knew you were special, but I didn't realize you were THAT special! Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't even know it myself!"

"None of the Guardians know that they are. Once they fully realize it, they will join you in your quest."

"You're calling it a quest now? This is beginning to sound very cliche."

"Call it what you want, but I'm referring to it as a quest. Mitch, who do you think is a likely candidate as a Guardian?"

"Hm, you're asking me? How do I know I even am a Guardian?" he asked skeptically.

"Look inside yourself."

After a moment of silence, Mitch nodded.

"Okay, I see now what you mean. If I had to guess, Sky is a likely choice."

Lox slightly blushed, still turned away from the duo.

"Alright. The threat back in your dimension is gone now, so I will send you back soon. First though, there is the matter of Xena."

"Huh? What about me?"

"You're part enderman now, so I suppose you want to learn about our history. If you want to learn more, you can stay here with Lox and I, and we will willingly teach you. However, you likely won't be able to return for a while. Fact is, enderman cannot teleport between dimensions for at least a minonen, which is equivalent to two weeks in your time standards."

She looked uncertainly at me.

"I don't want to be gone for that long, but I do want to learn more."

"It's your choice." I reassured her.

Xena turned back to Dark.

"I'll stay."

* * *

><p>*Dark_Master_98 POV<p>

"Alright. Don't worry, we'll watch your friends. Oh yes, one more thing before you return. I won't be around to save you everytime, so you should be careful. In fact, we probably won't interfere unless it is a life or death situation, and even then, it takes time."

"We understand." Deadfrontier nodded.

"I'll send you back to the battlefield. Hold hands, please."

Light, Deadfrontier20, Mitch and Jerome joined together in a ring, though I noticed that Mitch seemed a little disappointed that he didn't get to hold hands with Jerome.

"Good luck, everyone."

"Wait, can I have my-"

I didn't get to hear what Deadfrontier said, as the teleportation had already begun. The four of them became fully enveloped in a purple glow and disappeared in an instant, no accompanying sounds, nothing. I turned to Lox, who seemed relieved.

"Okay, what is it? Let the ocelot out of the bag, as they say in the realm of Minecraft."

"I may or may not know them. Personally."

"What does that mean?"

"Let's just say that BajanLox used to be a thing, before I turned into a hybrid."

"Oh, I see. You think Mitch will hate you as a hybrid, right? I'm sure he doesn't see it that way."

Lox didn't respond to this. Meanwhile, Xena teleported around us in a frenzy.

"You're going to exhaust all of your energy if you keep doing that. I'd stop if I were you."

Reluctantly, Xena slowed down, though she did keep teleporting.

"Sorry, but this is so fun! I never have to walk again!"

As much as I was tempted to go into a lecture about how walking is necessary for long-term ender survival, I decided to let her have some fun with her new abilities.

**Well, now the purpose of the wolf pack has been made clear. Hopefully, they can keep Nacho safe! Will other dogs be involved? Find out! Xena is now an Ender-Hybrid, though perhaps not in the expected way. I'm pretty sure you can all guess who Lox is. Bajanlox! Nah, I prefer Skylox, but I had to mention it. Not every shipping will be used, obviously, but I'll at least try to do the most popular ones. Merome is obvious, at this point. #BewareTheEntity. Just had to mention it. Actually, I noticed that someone tweeted that on Twitter, coughcoughLivieBellcoughcough. Let's keep trying to trend it! Yeah right, I wish. If it trends, I'm going to force myself to watch Birdemic. If you haven't heard of Birdemic, look up JonTron's review of it on YouTube! Hilarious. I'm just rambling now. I hope you all have a great day, and Valentine's Day, wink. See you all next time!**


	6. The Sky Is The Limit Pt 1

**Hey everyone, Dark here with a new chapter! Dang, my schedule's been busy lately. Between school, Charlie Brown rehearsal, and writing, I've hardly had time to myself. You didn't come here to hear me complain, though. For those of you unaware, the first chapter of the sequel is now up! Just so you know. Anyways, without further ado, enjoy!**

*Light POV

In the utter darkness, I could see a brilliant beacon of green, beckoning to me. I couldn't feel any part of my body, and yet, movement was perfectly natural to me. Just as I starting swimming through the inky emptiness, a tiny flicker of pure white light attracted my attention, and I couldn't help but hear voices emanating from it, just barely loud enough to discern.

"There is a new threat, one that holds the key of manipulation, capable of entering minds."

I tried to get closer, but a mysterious force violently repelled my effort, jerking me back to the green beckoning light faster than I could fight it.

**You don't have permission to enter this area.**

Before I knew it, my eyes were opened up to the afternoon sky, partially congested by a thick cloud of dark smoke. I considered this new piece of information. Could the voice telling me not to trust Dark_Master_98 be the threat? Dark didn't seem particularly evil. After a small fit of coughing, I sat up to look at my surroundings, a fiery wreckage of mangled metal, concrete scattered everywhere, occasional blood splatters, and dying fires.

"Misirius. My home. Destroyed."

Looking behind me, Mitch was curled up into a ball, whimpering. Jerome got up, sat down beside him, and comforted him with a hug. While this gesture didn't completely help, Mitch seemed to be grateful. Deadfrontier scouted the surroundings with a forlorn expression on his face, though his blue eyes were half-covered by his chocolate-brown hair. He seemed to be rather uncomfortable wearing his uniform now, rightly so due to the surroundings.

"We're not going to be able to do anything here. Almost nothing is left unscorched, though luckily my iron sword was left untouched by the flames. The bakeries, the schools, the police station, everything is destroyed. Unfortunately, that includes the Survival Games arena, at least half of it anyway. We're going to have to leave Misirius if we want to live."

Jerome nudged Mitch, who looked up with red eyes.

"Huh? Oh, yes. Where can we go, though?"

"The Sky Kingdom, remember? Dark_Master_98 did say to find Sky, right?" Jerome offered.

Mitch was less than thrilled, but it was impossible to tell if it was because of the loss of Misirius, or having to go to the Sky Kingdom, or perhaps both. Nevertheless, Mitch steeled himself, stood up, took a look around, then finally nodded.

"You're right. We can't just sit around here, feeling sorry for ourselves."

Behind us, the sound of glass breaking under feet rang out, and I looked back, startled, to witness a trio of armored people, dressed in golden armor that almost seemed to glow, stepping out of a burning building.

"Sky army recruits. Only they would willingly wear butter armor." Mitch muttered.

"Butter armor?" I asked in confusion.

"Sorry, old habit. Sky always refers to gold as butter, and it kind of rubbed off onto me."

The gold-clad recruits turned, surprised to see us.

"We've found survivors. They don't seem to be injured, or even slightly burned."

An incoherent message from a different walkie talkie could be heard.

"Roger that. We have 10-37, 4 to be exact."

"Hey, wait a minute. 10-37 registers as 'suspicious person/vehicle,' do they think we're suspicious?" Deadfrontier exclaimed in surprise.

* * *

><p>*Nacho POV<p>

I struggled to keep up with the rest of the pack. By this time, Misirius was long gone. Weiramasq turned back to see me slowly falling behind, and slowed his pace to match my pitifully small feet.

"Don't worry, we're almost at camp. See that forest over there? You'll be able to rest soon. I'll walk with you."

About one hundred paces later, we found ourselves on the border of various sizes of spruce trees. Jusliek tapped his paw impatiently on the ground, stirring up a small cloud of dust.

"Is he mad at us?" I hesitantly questioned.

"Nah, he's just too energetic for his own good. His impatience can get the better of him sometimes."

"Well, now that everyone is here, we can proceed."

Jusliek pawed an oddly shaped spruce tree for a few seconds, stopping when he hit something. Jusliek calmly backed up, and the tree slowly shifted backwards to reveal a secret chamber in the dirt, worn down by many pawprints passing in and out.

"That was my invention, the tree." Weiramasq whispered.

Jusliek ushered the wolves in one by one. However, just as I was about to take my turn, he stopped me.

"I'd like to talk to you for a second, if that is alright."

"Yeah, sure." I said, a little warily.

"Okay, I know you're a city dog, so I feel like I should warn you that a few of the elders dislike city dogs. You're young, so they might be a little softer, but you should be wary anyways. I'm sorry that you've lost your owner, and I'll personally make sure that they don't make fun of you for it. If they do anything to make you feel uncomfortable, just tell me. I'm here for you, and so is the rest of the Staurpoint pack."

"Thanks!"

"Of course, I can't let another pup fall to the elements in good conscience."

"Another?"

"The others are probably waiting. Let's get moving."

Jusliek gently nudged me into the tunnel. After looking around for a few seconds, he followed me in, and pushed something on the wall. The tree shifted back into place, slowly shrouding the corridor into darkness, though a bright orange light remained visible straight ahead.

"Right up ahead."

Minding my steps, I slowly made my way to the other end, and into the light.

* * *

><p>*Jerome POV<p>

"They think we're suspicious?" Light asked in surprise.

"Actually, their code differs slightly from ours. 10-37 to the Sky Army is 'Survivors.' I've memorized their code as well, I spent some time over there a while back, with Mitch. Isn't that right, biggums?"

"Yeah, I think that's right. Either that or 'Explosives,' but I doubt that's what they were referring to." He confirmed.

The trio of recruits approached us. The officer with a red band on the right shoulder, whom I assumed was the leading officer, remained cautious.

"Are you four alright?"

"I think so. Might I ask, why are you here from the Sky Kingdom?" I asked.

"Misirius was a major trading partner, so when reports of a complete riot reached our boundaries, squads were sent to try and quell the disturbance, and to take in survivors." The officer explained.

"How many were rescued, out of the 4 500 000 residents of Misirius?"

"I'm afraid that only 12 326 were successfully saved, over half of which were injured. 200 of them were even infected with the Zobmi virus, spread by the zombies that gradually turns residents into zombies over the course of a week. Luckily, we have a surplus of Golden Apples to cure them. On that note, you four need to come with us back to Sky Kingdom until we can confirm that you aren't infected."

"Fair enough. Lead the way."

"All those citizens, and I was unable to do anything. It's all my fault. I should have done more." Mitch was on the verge of breaking down into tears.

"Mitch, stop. You know we couldn't have done anything."

"Just kill me now. I can't bear it."

"Stop thinking like that! Focus on the positives."

"What positives? All I can see is death and destruction."

"Around 12 000 are safe, right? Think of them, they still look up to you!"

"Yeah, I suppose. Thanks, biggums."

"No problem. Let's go, this place is stirring up too many emotions. Lead the way, officer."

"Call me Furrypup12344." He motioned for us to follow him, and the four of us trailed behind the recruits.

* * *

><p>*? POV<p>

Slowly, I felt the blood rushing through my body. I tried to force my eyes open, but something held them shut. No parts of my body seemed to be willing or even able to move an inch. Suddenly, I felt a cold chill overcome me, and I realized that I was encapsulated by a thick sheet of ice. I felt too weak to use my powers to break out, so I decided to wait.

"You think that story about a powerful entity being trapped in the ice is true?"

"Nah, I think it's a load of cocoa beans. Ten thousand years trapped in ice, nothing could possibly survive."

Ten thousand years? I've been trapped that long? When I get out of here, those dwarves are going to pay. I decided to remain silent, to see if I could get any more information.

"A lot has changed since those times, eh?"

"Yeah, to think that redstone has gone such a long way, powering mobile communication devices and airships."

Mobile communication devices and airships? Wow, I've been in here a long time.

"Eh, no use thinking about the past. If there even is something in the ice, it would take a large impact from the outside to break it free, assuming it's alive."

"I've always enjoyed visiting this glacier. Too bad global warming is slowly melting it."

The voices disappeared. I took some time to absorb this new information. After ten thousand years, are the dwarves even still around? Probably, knowing their resilient nature. I have no idea how strong this ice is, and I might not even be able to break free with my full powers, so it looks like I have to wait for some coalbrain to come along and break me free accidentally. Oh well, more time to review how much I still remember, I'm bound to forget things after ten thousand years.

* * *

><p>*Sky POV<p>

Concerned, I looked out from the balcony of my room, the tallest point in the castle. I had just heard about the fall of Misirius, and off in the distance, a coal-black plume of smoke was painfully obvious against the clear blue backdrop of the sky. A knock could be heard from the door. Sighing, I put my glasses back on to cover my pure butter eyes, then opened the door to TrueMU, wearing his normal blue space suit, with an orange visor. Come to think of it, have I ever seen him without his suit? Oh wait, there was that one time when he lost it in a freak accident involving a banana, several tubes of toothpaste, and a vending machine. Took ten days to get all the trail mix out of his helmet.

"Sky, you're worried about it too?"

"Yes, I am. The attack was awfully close to our kingdom, and too far from any rivers for the culprits to be the squids. This may be a new enemy, and a new enemy is the last thing we need right now, when the squids have an upper hand on us."

We sat in silence for a few moments. Finally, Jason sighed, and got up from his seat, re-adjusting his helmet.

"Well, sitting around here won't do any good. Let's go and talk to the recruits about this incident."

"Good idea. They need to know what has happened."

* * *

><p>*Light POV<p>

Five hours later, we arrived outside of a small hospital. Off in the distance, a magnificent golden castle was crested by a slowly setting sun, bestowing upon it a glorious glow. I couldn't help but freeze at the sight.

"Yep, most freeze when they see that for the first time," Furrypup chuckled, "Let's get you four inside."

We followed him into the hospital, a plain white foyer, devoid of any decor other than a few red seats. The four of us decided to sit down, while the recruits looked around for a nurse. Jerome gripped his right arm in pain, and Mitch looked at him in concern.

"Are you alright, biggums?"

"Yeah, just a scratch. Don't worry about it."

Mitch looked somewhat unconvinced, but shrugged it off. After a few awkward minutes of pure silence, a female attendant in a sky-blue uniform, face concealed, entered the foyer, and motioned for me to follow. I looked to Deadfrontier for assurance, and he nodded. I stood up, stretched a little, then promptly proceeded to follow the attendant into an extensive corridor, lined by row after row of plain birch doors. Fifteen doors down, we finally got to an unmarked door. The nurse ushered me in, then locked the door behind me.

"Why did you lock the door?"

"Security purposes. Sit down on the log, please."

Noticing a dark oak log, I reluctantly sat down. She pulled out a large needle, filling it with a strange purple liquid.

"This will only hurt a little bit. Remain still, and hold out your left arm.

I winced as the pointy metal slid into my arm. For some reason, I felt strangely drowsy afterwards.

"Good boy. Don't resist the urge to sleep, it makes my job easier."

Even if I wanted to, I couldn't desist giving into the urge, and my eyelids dropped.

* * *

><p>*Deadfrontier20 POV<p>

I sat in silence, twiddling my thumbs. I missed my walkie talkie, but I doubt that it would do any good,since it only connected to the Misirius radio towers, and those are all likely destroyed. At least I got my sword back. I looked over at Mitch slumped into his seat, feeling sorry for him. Jerome sat in boredom, twirling his Betty around. As I was about to try to break the tension, Furrypup and his recruits rejoined us.

"Okay, I've arranged for you four to get looked at- Hey, weren't there four of you?"

"Light was called in to be looked at by a nurse in a sky-blue uniform.

"None of the uniforms are sky-blue, so how... Oh no."

"What?" We simultaneously asked, concerned.

"They swore that they would raise their security. Those corporate scumbags, I should have known they'd be too cheap."

Furrypup turned to the three of us.

"I'm afraid Light has been kidnapped."

**I'm evil. Muhahaha! **

**WB: No, you're just slightly annoying. You're like a rejected character from the League of Super Evil.**

**Oh yeah? You're like Justice Gene.**

**WB: I'm the Doomageddon to your Doktor Frogg.**

**Let's truce here. Want a Tofu Pop?**

**WB: Tofu Pops are tasty. Tofu Pops are tasty.**

**Now that we've gotten rid of WB, let's get back to the topic. Thank you for 319 views and 24 reviews! I love you all! Free Fudgy Yummy Fudge Bars for everyone! Except WB, he gets a Tofu Pop.**

**WB: Tofu Pops are tasty.**

**I think I broke WB, lol. Keep being awesome! I'll see you all next time! Bai!**

**WB: Tofu Pops are tasty.**


	7. DARK, WHERE ARE THE CHAPTERS!

Swegmstr253: DARK WHER R TEH CHAPTRZ

420BlaZiT: OMG DRK Y U NO UPLOAD NEW CHAPTZ

DeRPstAr999: UR SO LAZEE DURK

WB: Where are the new-

I get it, WB. Everyone wants to know where the chapters are. Yeah, I'm an idiot. Wanna know why? Those of you who write stories know the documents have a 90-day window before they get deleted. I didn't realize it, but several chapters got deleted because of it. Long story short, I have to rewrite them.

WB: You suck.

Hey, human error. You wouldn't know, since you're a line of code. Oh wait, what about Mangl-

WB: WE DON'T TALK ABOUT MANGLE.

Right, forgot you're still salty about that. #Writgle.

WB: WE DON'T NEED A SHIP LIKE THAT.

Right, forgot you prefer #DarkBlock98.

WB: Since when have I shipped myself with you?

I invented it now. Deal with it. Please forgive me for this minor inconvenience, I will return to normal schedule ASAP! Post in the reviews #Writgle.

WB: SINK THAT SHIP! KILL IT WITH FIRE. No wait, it's a ship, you can't kill it with fire. KILL IT WITH... ROCKS.

Cya soon!


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